Monday, March 9, 2009

Sandwich from Beyond

Today, I made a peanut butter sandwich with raspberry jam, cut it up into hors d'oeuvre-y 8ths and shared it with my Swiss, French, English and German co-workers.

As a father of three American-born children, it is strange and almost unsettling to see men and women in their 20s and 30s look at a peanut butter sandwich and ask what it is. Comments included:

"You eat it with jam? Really?"

"It's peanuts with butter?"

"Did you just come up with the idea?"

You can find small jars of peanut butter in most Swiss grocery stores (although the price would make you think there's a Fabergé egg inside). So peanut butter isn't completely foreign in Europe. But peanut butter sandwiches? I may as well have been offering peas and eucalyptus on whole wheat.